On June 9th , 2011, 10 unions representing the different sections of the employees of Air India, including, pilots, aircraft technicians, ground staff and cabin crew, Aircraft Engineers, radio officers and flight officers,Service Engineers as well as the officers came together at Mumbai and decided to form the “Core Committee of Joint Forum of Air India and India
On June 9th , 2011, 10 unions representing the different sections of the employees of Air India, including, pilots, aircraft technicians, ground staff and cabin crew, Aircraft Engineers, radio officers and flight officers,Service Engineers as well as the officers came together at Mumbai and decided to form the “Core Committee of Joint Forum of Air India and Indian Airlines”. The unions are ICPA (Indian Commercial Pilots Association) , IATA (Indian Aircraft Technicians Association), AIEU (Air India Employees Union), AIAEA (Air India Aircraft Engineers Association), AIEG (Aviation Industry Employees Guild), AIEA (Air India Employees Association), AICCA (Air India Cabin Crew Association), ARO&FOO (Airlines Radio Officers & Flight Operations Officers Association), AISEA (Air India Service Engineers Association), IAOA (Indian Airlines Officers Association) and ICPA (Indian Commercial Pilots Association).
The employees of Air India have not been paid their full salary since March of this year. The Pilots have only been paid 20% of their salary for March and April and no salary has been paid to them for May. The other employees have only been paid 40% of their salaries for April and no salary has been paid for May.
Due to severe financial pressures faced by employees, 3 of them have suffered massive heart attacks in the last 20 days and have succumbed.
It is in the light of these horrible working conditions that the Unions decided that they have to unite if they were to save their livelihoods. They were also inspired by the heroic fight put up by the Pilots of Air India led by their Union ICPA.
The Unions have decided that they must collectively come together to expose the nefarious designs of the Air India Management backed by the Government which has brought the Airline to this stage.
Immediately following this the General Secretary of ICPA was suspended from all flying operations and issued a letter asking him to show cause why he gave interviews to the electronic media. This was a sequel to the letter written by him on behalf of the Union to the DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) explaining that the non payment of salaries to the Pilots was putting sever mental stress on the Pilots and this could seriously endanger the lives of the passengers. The pilots rallied behind their leader and have decided unanimously that each one of them would separately write the same letter and send to the DGCA!
Mazdoor Ekta L fully supports this bold initiative of the Unions of Air India, including the heroic pilots, to fight to save their jobs and their Airline.
Also see attachments:
1) Letter of Appreciation from ICPA to Lok Raj Sangathan for support rendered during the Strike
2) Letter of Solidarity from ICPA to Western Railway Motormen Association
3) "Murder of a Maharaja" – Collection of Articles on how Air India was sabotaged by the government and management.